(Before anyone panics, THE CATS ARE OKAY!)
It’s late afternoon and I get a text “How are the kitties?” and my stomach DROPS, I am immediately filled with dread and guilt because I 100% completely fucking forgot that I had agreed to cat-sit for some family friends, starting TWO DAYS AGO. The cats had been alone without food for two and a half days. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. I dropped what I was doing and immediately drove over there to feed them, and thank GOD they were okay, luckily they still had plenty of water and didn’t show any obvious signs of ill health, though I’ll be watching them VERY closely over the next few days for any symptoms that could be a sign of something serious. I gave them a little extra food and a lot of extra love and I am just so so fucking thankful that they were okay. I felt like I was going to throw up I was so anxious.
The thing is, I have NEVER forgotten this kind of thing before. I’m a very forgetful person in general but I’ve cat-sit for these family friends MULTIPLE times before without any issue, as well as many other pets over the years, and I never fucking forgot until this time. I don’t know what happened, how this happened, but holy shit I have learned my lesson, this can never happen again, I will be taking EXTRA steps in the future to ensure I never forget when I’m pet-sitting again.
But the scariest part is that this could’ve been much, much worse. Because I COMPLETELY forgot, so I absolutely would not have remembered if I hadn’t received that text today. I am currently responsible for these living animals that I know and love and I almost fucking killed them, were it not for that text. I intend to tell the owners when they return, unless I have to take any of the cats to the vet, in which case I will notify them immediately. But I’m going to insist they not pay me this time, because I REALLY fucked up. This is completely unacceptable and I am LUCKY that I was reminded before any serious harm was done but holy fucking shit I am so, so sorry, kitties. I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t be surprised if they never ask me to cat-sit again but I have to tell them when they get back because I cannot accept payment after this. I can’t.
TL;DR: I forgot I was cat-sitting for TWO DAYS. Thankfully, the cats were okay! I feel immense guilt anyway.
Comments
Good on you for recognizing your mistake. Next time put the date in your phone immediately and set an alarm to a day before and the day of.
But also, tf are those friends not giving you a quick shoutout? Definitely their mistake as well for not checking in with you as they’re leaving.
When I started forgetting things it was my iron levels. Plus, getting checked out tells the parents that you are taking it seriously.
Glad the kitties are okay…but where’s cat tax
Now that we know the kitties are safe, we need cat tax please 🙏
I feel like I would’ve messaged someone taking care of my pets the day I left, something like, “alrighty I’m out, food’s set for the day” or whatever
I would never go away without double checking my pet sitter remembers what they are doing!
Honestly partly on the owners as well for not messaging to double check arrangements. I don’t know anyone who would leave their pets and not check in with the sitter the day before to make sure everything is good to go.
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We’ve all been there. Memory: ‘Offline’, Panic Mode: ‘Activated
Guess you could say you had a real… ‘cat-astrophe’.
I did this before. I wanted to die of shame. When I got there they still had a full bowl of food but I felt like the worst person in the entire world.
Thank you for making me feel better about expecting texts from my cat sitters at every visit and texting if I don’t hear from them
Before anyone gets the idea that I am a negligent pet owner, let me clarify that I have 3 cats and frequently go on trips for 3-4 days straight. I have automatic feeders, water fountains, a litter box for each cat on each level of the house and cameras set up all over the house to monitor them while I’m away. Cats are totally fine! Even though they are various degrees of social, they don’t “miss” you like dogs. My oldest child lives close by and can deal with any situation that comes up, but I am pretty comfortable leaving them alone for a few days. Am I wrong though?
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The only reason I might not tell the owners – humans have faulty wiring, and part of that faulty wiring is always feeling like there is some malicious intent behind forgetting. In other words, they might come down on you hard.
You’ll just make things very tense between you and these people, and throw a lot of trust issues into the friendship, over an accident that is already fixed.
Next time set something in your phone/calendar to beep at you on the first day of sitting. Preventing it from happening again is the important part.
When I was a kid, our pet sitter forgot we had 2 cats. One of our cats was locked in the closet for A WEEK. She survived, just never let us shut doors around her again. 😅
Lived until she was 17. So don’t beat yourself up too badly!
You definitely fucked up, but maybe im not understanding how cat sitting normally works, but you werent there already when the people left?
Also surprised they didnt check in earlier
Put everything in Google calendar
I can’t imagine not being in somewhat close contact with my pet sitter especially on the day of travel.
I had a pet sitting business for many years but not anymore. Occasionally I will have a dream that I completely forgot about a pet sitting assignment and rush over to the house in a panic.
Glad the cats are OK>
When I was about 10 years old, a neighbor called and asked if I could get their mail and newspaper for a week. I said “sure!” and it immediately left my mind. They came home to a full mailbox and yard full of newspapers. I’ll never forget when my mom came to me and asked if I had said I could do this- probably my first panic attack! All I could think about was “what if they had pets.” Apparently the neighbor thought she was talking to my older sister of two years, but still, it wasn’t very smart of her to not talk to a parent.
To this day, every time a neighbor asks me to watch their cats/house, I immediately put multiple alerts in my phone for each day they will be gone, and I ask them to please remind me when they are leaving. That scarred me for life!
This happened to me once almost 2 years ago and I STILL feel bad about it. However that just means I take more steps to make SURE I have a reminder. As long as the kitties are okay, it’s okay. Just take steps not to have it happen again. ❤️
I JUST did the same thing, except it was a day and a half, but elderly af cats. My partner asked me how feeding them went and my blood went cold haha. Sprinted down the street, lil furballs hissed at me for a few minutes then accepted plenty of apology pets. Shit happens, thank god cats are adaptable. My dog woulda broken through a window
How are people not putting things like this onto a calendar or planner?
My housemate’s cat disappeared for like 10 days once, a neighbor found her in an unused upstairs room with the door shut. She must have come in the window and then couldn’t get back out. No water no food. She lived! No idea how.
Once I was dog sitting and my friends were like “how are the fish” on the last day. What fish???
They had a bucket of goldfish in the yard, and completely forgot to tell me.
Lid on.
They were ok! I was pretty afraid to open that lid. I think they were alone for four or five days, not too bad for fish. But yeah – panic!
Honestly the guilt means you actually care, and that’s more than most. But yeah… those cats are definitely charging emotional rent now 😔
Thankfully it’s only a couple of days and cats can go without food for about 5, but water they do need.
Good on you for owning up to your error.
Thank you for actually caring. Long, sad story incoming.
When my brother and I were kids our family went on a two-week long vacation, and we hired a pet/house sitter that we thought we could trust. She did a bunch of horrible things during those two weeks, but the worst one was never uncovering my brother’s bird.
The entire ride home my brother was singing about how he was coming home to his bird and how he loved and missed him. He had this tiny bird trained and everything, he loved him so much.
Well, the bird was dead. The pet sitter later admitted she “forgot” about the bird. (We don’t believe she actually forgot considering she had parties and was actively at the house- she would have heard him screaming, so this was more of a her not caring thing than a genuine forgotten thing like in your case.)
My mom asked her best friend (who has a son who was my brother’s best friend) to check on the house and animals several hours before we got home just to make sure there were no surprises. Well..my mom knew the entire way home while my brother was singing happily and couldn’t say a damn thing. Her and her best friend, my brother’s best friend in tow, had to tell him in the driveway before we went inside.
My brother and I were both young and the proper choice was to wait to say anything, as hard as it was for my mom. She had to sit in the front seat listening to her sweet boy sing about his beloved pet bird, blissfully unaware of what had happened. She then had to listen to him sob his heart out in her arms. All because the pet sitter didn’t care enough to uncover this little bird. I’ll be honest, this was long ago at this point but I still get angry and upset when I think about it. I know it’s not my place to forgive her, but I never have. She didn’t even bother to tell my mom the bird died. She left him for us, for my brother to find.
So, thank you for actually caring about the animals you’re watching. I’m so glad the kitties ended up okay, and please try not to beat yourself up too much. They’re okay, and they’re safe with you. I’m proud of you for taking accountability for these lovely cats. It’s going to be okay. xx
Dude I’ve done almost the exact same thing before when I was younger, I’m not even joking. Agreed to catsit, thought that they were leaving on Friday and I was going to go over there Friday evening after work but they actually left Thurs afternoon, so I was a whole day late and one of the cats was olddddd. I got the same text and freaked tf out too, rushed over on my lunch break, fed them, and thankfully everything was totally fine. I felt like the biggest asshole in the world. I was too much of a coward to say anything, which I really regret, I just acted like everything was fine and was very relieved they didn’t have a ring camera or anything. I handled it so wrongly.
I think your intent to tell them in person once they are home and refuse payment is the best way to go about this. I hope they would be understanding and glad you’re taking responsibility, but even if they get super mad at you, it’s probably not worse than how you already feel. It ate me up inside for a while but at the end of the day, you will feel so much better in the long run that you informed the owners and that the cats are fine. The guilt will ease.
I did this before for some friends, only missed one meal but I felt like a turd. Thankfully the cats were all a lil chunky so missing one meal wasn’t going to kill them. 😂 And they were just happy to see me when I did show up. I did tell my friends right away but assured them that the cats were fine.
I’m kind of surprised the people asking made no notion to check in with you before they left lol. Glad you and the kitties are ok 🙂
whenever I’m a petsitter I meet up with the owners just before they leave, is that not common?
I once was at the opposite end of that. Professional cat sitter had forgotten completely about cat-sitting at this place. The cats were self-sufficient. When they got too hungry, they totally destroyed the box of dry cat food that had been left on the table (next to the wet food). Luckily, there had been more than enough (then: stale) water left throughout the apartment.
When notified (after return back home), the “cat sitter” drove by and dropped off both keys and money.
I mean I’m in contact with the pet sitter daily, kinda weird they didn’t message you sooner.
If the cats are ok, I really don’t think you have to tell them. You’re being really hard on yourself, deservedly so, but it seems like you’ve learned your lesson.
My brother had a cat. He would be away on business, but the cat had water and food dispensers, and could go out the cat door to do its business in the back yard, so he had it all covered, no cat sitter needed. One time he had been gone for a couple of days, and I went over to his house to get something. I heard some meowing coming from somewhere. I finally opened the closet and the cat ran out! The cat had been accidentally locked in the closet — there was no food or water in there. It was pure luck I came along to let it out much sooner than my brother planned to be back. That closet was where my brother kept his luggage, so the cat must have gone in there when he was getting his luggage out.
Oh man. I was cat sitting once and the cats were in door/out door so I’d let them out in morning and back in later before dark (it was dec and we had snow). Sometimes cats wouldn’t be waiting when I came back to let them in so I’d come back later at night and they were usually there. One day they weren’t there to be let out. Oh well sometimes they don’t want to go out. But then I couldn’t find them. Maybe I let them out and they weren’t back? Hunkered down for the night? They’d done that before so still not panicking yet. 3 days later I still hadn’t seen them so I began seriously searching the house first then planned on searching the neighborhood, they usually didn’t go far. Things had locked themselves in an upstairs bedroom and couldn’t be bothered to call out when I was looking for them! 3 days!! They were fine but also. 3 days!! I was terrified they were frozen under a random person shrubbery!!
My cat sitter forgot my cats for 17 days. 17. DAYS.
They were totally fine- still had food and water. Was it ideal? No. Did I lose a friendship? Also no. Mistakes happen. 2 days is nothing for cats!
Always use your calendar app on your phone for these exact things.
Do they normally text you to check in? If not, then chances are they have cameras and already knew you hadn’t been by.
When I was a kid, my Grandmother asked my Mom to take care of her birds while she was on vacation for a week or two. She COMPLETELY forgot and didn’t stop by once. Needless to say, they were dead when Grandma got back and she got new birds that week.